The iron bridge on the Po river is located in the Municipality of Castelvetro Piacentino. It connects Piacenza and Cremona territories. This bridge is considered one of the longest in Europe and it was opened on the 20th September 1892 at the presence of all the local authorities and with a big celebration.
The challenge
It was a great challenge at that time. The bridge was built by the hard will of Francesco Genala from Cremona. At that time he was the Civic engineering Minister in the Depretis Cabinet.
During the February 1886 the office of the Genio Civile in Cremona proposed the project of the double-use overpass (street and railway).
The position was decided: 400 meters from the old flatboats bridges.
The contract was awarded on the 29 October 1886 to the Società Nazionale delle Officine di Savigliano (SNOS) and the real works started in April 1887. The final money amount was 5.972.000 LIRE.
The Second World War
The bridge was bombed during the Second World War and at the end of the conflict, it was rebuilt. The original part from the XIX Century is the Castelvetro side, where it is still possible to see the memorial plaques placed in 1892 by SNOS. The reconstructed side in 1946 is the bridge towards Cremona.
The bridge is more than 960 meters long, it has 12 spans and it’s 7,2 meters wide.
It has a double use: street girder with only one street for each direction and a railway girder, along with a pedestrian border.
The recent development of the iron bridge
After the improvement of the railway, in May 1990 a new railway bridge was built alongside to the nineteenth connection. After that, the removal of the old and useless girder started.
In 2005 the narrow walk border was replaced by a pedestrian cycling new one, 2,5 meters wide.
